From the Experts: Advertising Failures

Do you want to improve your advertising? The best way is to find out why advertising fails and learn from it. Have you heard that old saying "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it?" Read about why other people failed so that you don't have to. No one wakes up in the morning and says, "Today's a great day to fail at our new marketing campaign!" The best way to prevent from being a failure is to learn from others' (and your own) mistakes.

Here are some good articles to read about why advertising fails.

12 Causes of Advertising Failure by Roy Williams
Here are a few rather short ideas about why ad campaigns fail. They aren't long and are easy to read. It covers mostly common problems. I've noticed that a lot of these problems are rooted in impatience and selfishness. Take that out of the equation, and you'll likely have greater success. No one likes a selfish company.

7 Reasons Most Advertising Fails 
by Kirk Phillips
Kirk incorporates humor and is a little more specific than the previous article. While the above article gives more general blanket reasons, this article addresses specific problems. Most of it is not directly applicable to what a church seeks to do with its advertising, but the principles are still beneficial.

Marketing Mistakes 
by Peter Geisheker
This article offers extremely practical solutions. It tells you why a particular approach has failed and how to change it. The best way to understand a problem is to be given an example or an illustration. It's probably the shortest of the articles, but that certainly does not detract from it's value in understanding how not to fail.

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Jude 22: The Wrong Approach?

For years I've seen churches and youth groups sporting the theme "Making a Difference" from Jude 22. "Get out there, witness, and make a difference in someone's life." "Jesus is the key, only He can make a difference in the world." It sounds like a great motto, doesn't it?

This is such a prominent theme that just about everyone has probably heard of it. I've seen churches theme their entire year off of it. Youth Groups have made it their motto and focus. Books have been written on it. I've seen flyers, posters, and even T-shirts, sporting this theme. They often feature the whole phrase or just "M.A.D." saying "Let's go M.A.D.!"

If you or your church cling to that motto, I've got bad news for you. It doesn't mean what you think it does.

How did this topic come up? If you read my post about being really busy, then you know I'm in a summer class right now. That summer class is on the epistle of James. Right about now, you're thinking: "What does James have to do with Jude?" Well, a few years ago I had a Greek class in James. I chose to write my Greek paper on James 1:5-8. I was reminded of that paper today in class.

I don't usually bring Greek into a Bible lesson openly. It's just not necessary for understanding Scripture. However, sometimes it is helpful, and I think this is one of those areas. In my paper on James 1:5-8, I came across a word that I just had to research. The English word in verse 6 is "wavereth." When I study a Greek word, I look up every other appearance of that word in the New Testament, and I see how it is translated. Wouldn't you know it, one of those uses is the phrase "making a difference" in Jude 22.

So what does the word mean? The Greek word is diakrino. The root of the word means "to judge." With its prefix attached, it means "to distinguish, to determine, or to differentiate." When James uses the word, it refers to someone who can't make up his mind and wavers back and forth, not determining to believe God completely. The word does NOT mean "change." It doesn't mean "change someone's life."

Taking Jude 22 in context, let me tell you what the passage means. False teachers have arisen, mockers and scoffers have appeared on the scene (v.4, 16-17). Jude says that they are sensual and walk in their own lusts (v.18, 19). Then he reminds the believers that they have faith, love, and the mercy of God (v.20-21).

Therefore, he says, have mercy on some of these false teachers and wayward people. Make a differentiation, or judgment, between those who purposely would mislead you and those who have accidentally been duped. Some of those people are probably teaching things falsely because they've been taught falsely and they don't know any better. With those people, have compassion and correct them.

One of the biggest reasons this verse is misunderstood is actually not a Greek issue. This verse is taken out of context. The whole book is about false teachers who have crept in and are misleading the people of the church. It has nothing to do with soul winning and making a difference in people's lives. Romans would be a better place for something like that. "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (By the way, that simply means someone to tell them, anyone can be a "preacher" of the gospel).

You don't need Greek to figure that out if you keep the verse in context, but the Greek is what helped me figure it out because I realized that phrase doesn't mean what everyone thinks it means.


The Bottom Line
What's the bottom line? We need to stop twisting this verse and using it out of context. We should stop making T-Shirts, videos, posters, and flyers with this phrase on it. We need to stop making this our church theme for the year. It ought be our goal to rightly divide the Word of Truth and do honor by God and His Word. We can still use the theme, just not in relation with this verse.

As a final word, let me say that I am in no way bashing the people that use this phrase. In fact, some churches and pastors close to me have used this phrase. It is that very thing that gave me the burden to help you understand the meaning that God intended.

Will you help me in getting this message out there? Share this on Facebook and Twitter and with everyone you know. I want people to know what is the RIGHT way to understand this passage. If you are a Greek student, I encourage you to do the study yourself.

Think I'm wrong? I've been wrong before. Tell me about it in the box below. Give me stronger evidence to support the reason why the general interpretation is right.

Do you have any additional thoughts or comments? I'd love to hear about them.

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I'm Still Alive

I just wanted to post and say that I'm still alive and have not forgotten about the site. I've been extremely busy, plus part of the time I was on vacation. I posted some while on vacation, but ultimately, spending time with friends and family all day and sometimes into the wee hours of the night prevented my posting.

Just so you know, I received a copy of Dr. Thom Rainer's book, Simple Church. Dr. Rainer is the president of LifeWay. His book has some church marketing principles in it and the book was suggested to me as being helpful for this topic of church media and marketing. I've received two copies free of charge from Dr. Rainer. I will read the book, critique it, and then offer the second copy as a giveaway. You can be looking forward to that in the near future.

Currently, I'm in a summer class and the major course project is taking up most of my time. As soon as I finish it, or at least get close, I plan to publish the Advertising "From the Experts" that I missed a week ago. Then I'll start working on the next media tip.

I know that the first week of July I'll be publishing our first guest poster. She's a friend of mine from college and will be posting on Church identity design. Things like logos and letterheads, etc.

So you can be looking forward to that, too. There's a lot to talk about in church media, and I haven't given up the ghost yet. Just busy, so I hope you'll bear with me.

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Ten Dangers of Advertising

Advertising can be one of the most powerful media tools at a church's disposal. There are plenty of reasons why your church should be using advertising. However, there are also some dangers about advertising. If done the wrong way, advertising can actually harm your identity. Treat advertising like you would treat a visitor. Follow these simple instructions to avoid doing anything that would give people a wrong impression of your ministry.

1. Don't fake your success.
The following information is a summary of the article Blogging Can Be Disastrous. It proves that advertising that presents fake or falsified information will only lead to disaster. Don't advertise that you've got 400 people in wall-to-wall crowds on Sunday when your church only has 40 people in a room big enough to fill 200. It might attract visitors, but as soon as they arrive they'll realize you faked it and they'll tell everyone they know you were deceptive. You'll not likely get any more visitors. Ever.

Dr. Pepper failed in 2003 when it tried to advertise it's new product, Raging Cow. It was a new type of flavored milk. To promote it, they pulled in a bunch of teenagers and told them to go blog about it as if they had just discovered the milk and thought it was amazing. They were to act like consumers, not paid employees promoting their product. The scam was revealed and the product flopped.

In 2006, Wal-Mart also failed miserably doing the same thing. You probably know some people who are McDonald's or Wal-Mart fanatics. You know, the type that just have to visit every single store in every city they go to because it's some sort of game to see how many stores they can go to? Wal-Mart hoped to capitalize from this mentality. They hired two guys to travel around the country in an RV visiting every Wal-Mart. They were to then blog about their experiences, thus making Wal-Mart look as popular as places like Hollywood or Disneyland. It, too, was exposed, the blog disappeared off the web and Wal-Mart dealt with a lot of bad publicity.


2. Don't fix what isn't broken
If you've got an ad source that works. Keep it up. Don't try to change it because you think people are getting bored with it. When you stop receiving feedback from that source, then think about changing it.


3. Don't reinvent the wheel. Creativity isn't always the best.
Be careful how you advertise. Going way out on a limb will just have people confused and possibly put off by what you're doing. Stick with what works, but don't be afraid to put your own twist on it. Just keep it within reason.


4. Don't advertise based upon culture.
This is a strong temptation for a church. Many churches compromise their standards because they think they can attract the world by being like the world. Truth is, people are sick of the world and want something different. McDonald's advertised for culture with it's "I'd hit that" campaign and it failed miserably. Coca-Cola tried it with OK Cola. Ever heard of it? Not me either. The reason is that Coca-Cola attempted to release a new soda in 1993 based upon the OK Manifesto. Except there was no reason for it. They just attempted to be culturally cool.


5. Don't steal images, brands, or copyrighted information.
This should be a no brainer, but don't steal. Everyone knows you've done it. It doesn't look cool, and you'll lose your credibility. It's so tempting to do because that ad campaign was so largely successful.

Case in point: Church juice posted an article about stealing logos a few months ago. The author happened upon a church who tried to advertise ministry opportunities to it's members. It took Nike's slogan "Just Do It" and their logo and made it "Just Try It." It was a sad disgrace of an attempt. It's fun to do parodies every now and again, but make sure your obvious about the spoof. Don't try to look professional with someone else's work.


6. Don't sell more than you can offer.
Words like "Best Prices" are okay to say...if you can back it up. If you don't truly mean it, don't say it. We're churches. We represent God. Let's not lie to people in our advertising. You've all heard the grandiose promises of the candidates running for President, yet they fail to back up those claims. How does that make you feel? It doesn't give you greater confidence in the guy, that's for sure. Your church cannot afford to lose credibility and the confidence of the people around you.


7. Don't sacrifice your message for design.
Simple designs communicate better than flashy "attractive" ones. Graphic masterpieces and techno-gadgets are a thing of the 90s. In today's age, people relate good quality advertising to clean advertising. Some of the best websites are a simple white, yet they have an aura of power about them.


8. Don't advertise everywhere.
More ads in less places is better than less ads in more places. Simply put. If you have a chance to advertise on TV for one day, even if it's an ad during every commercial, and that's it, you're wasting your time. People will have forgotten you by tomorrow. But a newspaper ad that is seen every single day for years will attract more attention. Why? It's better to reach 10% of your audience 100% of the time than to reach 100% of them only 10% of the time (TheRadioStations.com).

9. Use testimonials instead of promotions.
If you can help it, the pastor should not be the one making the sales pitch in the ad. This doesn't mean the pastor can't be in it, but testimonials from every day people will go heaps further in the eyes of your viewers. Why? Because your biased, that's why. It's the truth. You've got so much time invested in it, you'd say your church was soaring if all it had were penguins (If you don't get that, don't think about it too hard...Penguins don't fly). Glad Tidings Omaha does this amazingly well. Check out their website and you'll be bombarded with testimonials from the home page.

10. Don't insult your audience.
You may think that your church has what everyone needs, but telling someone they're dumb if they don't go to church isn't the best way to get them to come. Instead, tell them what they do need. For instance, if you're trying to get smokers to stop smoking, you don't tell them "Only idiots smoke cigarettes." Instead, you show them what cigarettes do to your heart and lungs. Now obviously not everyone will respond to that, and not everyone is going to respond to your church ad.

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Nine Reasons Every Church Should Advertise

Ever wonder why companies like McDonald's and Coca-Cola spend millions on advertising when they're already so well established that it's impossible that no one has ever heard of them? It is just as important for the church to maintain an presence in advertising as it is for them. As a matter of fact, it may be more important for a church because of the importance of your mission, the saving of souls.

Chances are your church isn't advertising like it should be. You probably have several excuses, and some of them might actually be valid. "We don't have the funds for stuff like that," or "We don't have a good designer to make our ads." Certainly those are reasonable problems, but that doesn't mean you should just give up on advertising. Here are nine solid reasons why your church needs advertising.


1. It attracts new visitors.
The number one reason to advertise and the number one goal of your advertising should be to attract new people, specifically, the unsaved. Advertising actually has two main purposes. 1) Bring in the lost and 2) Draw in like minded believers. Now it shouldn't ever be our goal to steal folks from another good, Bible believing church, but if they come, they come. Your goal is to attract the lost, grab the attention of new people who have just moved to the area, and give folks a shining light to come to if they are currently in the wrong crowd.

2. Lack of advertising lowers your awareness.
Why do the companies that are popular stay popular? Because they're constantly putting their product in front of your face. TV commercials, bill boards, posters, signs at bus stops, etc. They pull out all the stops to make sure that you can't get them out of your mind. You could have the best product on the market, but if it is not advertised properly, it'll flop.

It amazes me how little churches put into advertising. Sure, they'll put an ad in the paper during Vacation Bible School because they want to attract as many kids as possible. Did your desire to attract people end when Vacation Bible School finished? Probably not. Then why should your advertising?

Advertising increases public awareness. Even if they never come to your church. Even if they never want to, advertising gets your name where it can be seen and heard. Word of mouth can be a powerful tool and keeping your name in the back of their mind is a great way to promote your church.


3. You have the greatest "product" to offer, Jesus Christ.
Some companies fail because they don't have great products. There is no greater thing in life than accepting Christ as Savior. You know it, and I know it, but the people don't. Our ads need to communicate that message. A recent article I read said that we need to focus less on telling people why we're better than the church downtown and start focusing on telling people why they need Jesus.  The article discusses the purpose of the Got Milk? ad campaigns. The purpose was not to prove their milk was better than their competitor's milk. The goal was to convince people to drink milk.


4. It gets your congregation excited.
Who doesn't want their church to get excited? Every time you put out a new advertisement, a new flyer, or church tract, tell your church. Bring the advertisement and show it to the congregation. People tend to be more excited about church when they see it making progress.

Suppose you attend the same church for 10 years and never see it do anything different. Every week is the same, they never make any progress, never have an building programs, never put on any events. Wouldn't you get bored after awhile? But when your church launches a new ad, it's something new, something interesting and piques people's interest.

Murray River Baptist Church launches a new newspaper ad every two weeks. I'm 10,000 miles away, and I look forward to seeing it posted to Facebook. When I see it, my eyes brighten and I click on the picture to take a closer look. It's exciting to see new advertisements and gets people involved.


5. It builds Authority, Reputation, and Confidence.

When people see or hear a name constantly, they slowly begin to trust it. At first, the thought of randomly showing up at your church is something that scares them. Whether they think your service will be boring, are uncomfortable with the unknown, or just plain don't think they need Jesus. But as they are constantly made more aware of your name, they will become familiar with it.

They'll feel as if they've known you all along. Finally, the thought of visiting won't seem so scary anymore. If your advertising has accomplished its purpose, you'll even have them curious. So curious they can't not visit any longer.


6. It establishes your name and identity.
Identity is important for a church. It's who you are, what you are about, and how you show yourself to the community. In a couple of weeks, I've got a special guest lined up to share an article with you about building your church brand. It sounds weird to call it that, but your logo, letterheads, and business cards are critical for promotion, attraction, and recognition.


7. It gives you the opportunity to share your heart.
Nothing attracts new visitors more than seeing the heart and care of a church. They want to be wanted. They want to feel welcome and loved. Advertising gives you the opportunity to share testimonials of current members. Glad Tidings Omaha communicates this amazingly well on their website. Murray River Baptist Church featured different church members in their newspaper ad a few months back. It gives you the opportunity to tell the community: "Lives are being changed, yours can change too."


8. It shows community involvement.
Advertising lets the community know that you aren't a secret society. Many people have a misconception that a church is like a club. It's for its members and to become a member you have to be introduced by a current member. This thought creates a feeling of seclusion and separation between you and them. Advertising tells them, "Anyone can come, we welcome and appreciate you. Stop on by." It also tells them that you care about the city you live in, you care about the people around you. You aren't there to serve just a few "privileged" people.


9. It increases your ministry effectiveness.
This is more of a benefit of advertising than it is a reason, but benefits are reasons. More visitors means more people joining the church. More people joining the church means more people to volunteer for work and to participate financially with the church. More people participating means greater opportunity for expansion of your ministry.

Just a word of caution. This should not be the driving force of your advertising campaign. Notice how far down the list it is? Humble yourselves before God, praise Him, and He will lift you up. Never seek to lift yourself up, even if you do, it will be out of wrong motivation and God is not pleased with that.


If you are interested in Advertising ideas or saying "I'd love to do this, but I don't know how," then let me know in the comments below. I'd be more than happy to help you in any way I can.

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The Awe-Inspiring Design of the Creation Museum

My wife and I visited Answers in Genesis's Creation Museum today and we're going back tomorrow to finish up what we didn't get to today. I have only one reaction: Amazing. All of the exhibits are so finely crafted and the design work is phenomenal. As a matter of fact, I thought their design was so powerful, I wanted to share it with you, and give you some ideas for your church.

I show you this for one reason and one reason alone: It proves why you need media and design in your church.

Answers in Genesis could have sat us all down in a big lecture hall and spent an hour telling us why the Bible is true, and why we ought believe what we do. They could have stood there behind a lectern interesting the intelligent few, boring the impatient most, and even putting a few to sleep. Instead, they gave us the same message in an interesting and attractive, easy to read poster.

While you may not be able to design this sort of thing, you are perfectly capable of displaying such a poster on your church projector through Powerpoint which you purchased and plan to use in the next month (Right? You did do that correct? If not, read this). If I have to repeat myself, it will increase the attention of your congregation and increase their learning and memory retention. That alone should be enough for you start using it as soon as possible.

The photo below kind of destroys the cleverness of the design. It's a clean black wall (yes, wall) with bright orange text. The light and exposure time kind of counteracts the effect.

The following two pictures are great diagrams that would be perfect compliments for a series on Genesis 10-11. You could show something like this during the sermon itself. 

Here is an interesting idea for church website. This is a virtual tour for the upstairs level of their dino exhibit. It's for those who can't make the steps. The Creation Museum also has a virtual tour on their website. I'm not sure how you'd do it, but you could google it. Creating a virtual tour for your website would allow people to get to see your church before they come. It may be counter productive and time consuming to make for a church, but I thought it was cool.

This is the importance of an identity. It's a clean design that says, "This is who we are." From this, you understand the focus on believing, defending, and proclaiming Creation. It's powerful and effective. My church has something similar to this just inside our church. Our logo is large and displayed hanging off the wall like the picture below. It's a great way to emphasize our identity as Pine Forest Estates Baptist Church.

These are posters, but they are great inspiration ideas for brochures and handouts. There's a nice welcome from the president. How about a nice welcome from the Pastor? You could place that right in the door of your church if you went with a poster, or hand it out as a brochure for advertising. Put it in the newspapers, get it out there.

"What do people need?" They need answers! AiG answers the questions about Creation. Maybe your church wants to run an ad about Answers, but they're answering to life's big questions and the Bible has the answer and your church is sharing those answers every Sunday.

Take some of these ideas and use them in your church. I'm serious. Don't just look at this and go, "Oh that looks nice," or "I wish we did something like that." Take the idea and run with it. An idea without action stays an idea, but an idea plus action changes lives.

Did you find this inspirational and motivating? Share it on Facebook to get your pastor and friends fired up, too. Have any other insightful comments? Let me know about them using the box below.

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From the Experts: The Digital Church

This first couple of articles analyze the good points and bad points of a digital church. The last few are some guidelines for Pastors about using media like Facebook and Twitter that I found helpful.
  

The Deep Limitations of The Digital Church by Albert Mohler
Summary

Mohler expresses his gratitude for the digitization of the technology-apt church. But he has some reservations about the extent of its use. He is worried, and with good cause, that a church can go overboard with its use of media. He offers some cautions concerning this matter.

Review
I truly appreciate Mohler's first meaty paragraph (after all the intro about an article he read). I agree with him in that there is something extremely healthy about a church that desires to use modern communication tools to carry out the Great Commission. And I also agree that there are certain dangers that must be understood. The only reservation I have is that his article almost makes it sound bad to live stream a service, though I understand his hesitation about it.


Christian Media is Horrible Media Say Critics by Gordon Marcy
Summary

Marcy discusses the balances between focusing on your marketing and your message. Today's culture equates church marketing as bad marketing (and it's mostly true). As a matter of fact, there is a whole website dedicated to bad church marketing. Marcy's argument is that we shouldn't sacrifice the message for the presentation of that message.

Review
I agree with Marcy's focus. The priority should be on the message itself. If you do not communicate your message what is the point of giving in the first place? You've just wasted your time and money if you fail to communicate the message. However, I feel that Marcy downplays packaging. I know he continually mentions that we need to improve our marketing, but the tone I get when I read it is that a bad package plus a good message is okay by him.

Sure, most churches have gotten by doing just that for years, but changing that is what Media Missions is all about. We desire to see you improve your package to compliment a good message with good packaging. I'm sure that is his overall desire as well, I just had to get that in there.


Facebook Guidelines for Pastors and Others by Steve Cornell

Summary
The premise for this article is the Pastor's improper use of Facebook. He tells the story of a pastor who confesses of a Facebook affair. Cornell states that he has seen more than one such Facebook affair. His article features a list of things you can do and shouldn't do on Facebook.

Review
This article is more than just about the scenario he lists in the beginning, but let me go off on a tangent really quick. To me, any pastor who has his head on straight shouldn't be doing the things he has listed anyway. Most pastors know how to properly treat women they counsel or talk to and could apply those same principles to Facebook or any other digital encounter. The problem comes into play when they purposely disregard those safe-guards (mostly intentionally for the sake of having an affair). Nobody accidentally has an affair. It's a willful decision.

That being said, these are great guidelines for everyone, not just pastors. There are some great suggestions about what not to do. I think that should be applied to texting as well. I particularly appreciate his section on photos. It's worth a read, and we should certainly be more cautious about how we use Facebook. The questions at the end also provide a great spiritual check to see what's more important for you, God or Facebook.

When Pastors Update and Tweet Dos and Don'ts by Steve Cornell
Summary
This article is almost exactly the same and the last one. The only difference is that it contains Biblical principle.

Review
I didn't want to just use this article because I appreciate some of the more in-depth details on the last article, but the Biblical principles were too good to just leave this off altogether. You can skip the top details and go straight for the Bible verses, everything else is the same.

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